Hockey Nuts In Canada

September 30, 2010Angela (Oh She Glows)

by Angela (Oh She Glows) on September 30, 2010

This time of the year makes me all warm and tingly inside.

And no, it’s not just because my hands and feet are starting to return to their habitual winter-like chill or because I am consuming so much cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger my intestines just might bleed.

Well that too, but there is another reason why this time of the year makes me all warm and tingly inside…

It’s almost hockey season!

This year, Eric and I are going to be hosting some Hockey Night in Canada gatherings with our Hockey Nut friends.

Of course, if you are like me, you see this as an opportunity not only to guzzle beer on a week night, but to come up with fabulous goodies that you can serve to your beer guzzling friends.

To kick off the season, I decided that I was going to bring back the Bar Nut.

Hockey Nuts, Beer, and Bar Nuts go hand and hand, don’t you think?

I will never forget the first time that I tried the famous Union Square Cafe Bar Nuts. These nuts won the title of Best Bar Nuts in New York, however at the time, I had no clue they even existed!

I was at a family gathering on Thanksgiving and one of our relatives made these famous nuts as an appetizer.

Eric and I could not stop eating these nuts!

In all my excitement I exclaimed to the room, ‘These are the best nuts I’ve ever tasted!!’, shortly thereafter the room went silent followed by an eruption of laughter, which was followed by my face turning beet red and drowning my sorrow in my beer (& nuts).

Notes: For the first batch I made, I followed the original recipe to a tee and I found that it was super, super salty. In my second version, I reduced the salt by 1/2 tsp and I increased the sugar slightly. I also added maple syrup due to the fact that Sucanat is quite dry. I also added an extra tbsp of Earth Balance to give the sauce something to stick to. Finally, I double baked the nuts for a more crispy and caramelized outcome.

These bar nuts are great because you can adapt them to how you like them! Make sure you taste them before going into the oven for the second bake and adjust seasonings if necessary.

Ok line up the troops!

This is the first round of toasting…

Prepare your sauce…

Note: That is blackstrap molasses in the centre of the above photo. I added about 1/4 tsp, but I wouldn’t bother adding it next time as I don’t think it did anything.

I didn’t have much fresh rosemary left, so I had to use a mixture of fresh and dried rosemary. I’m sure you could use all dried rosemary if you had to, but fresh is always best.

Remove toasted nuts from oven and place into a bowl.

Coat with 1 tbsp of Earth Balance…

Now mix in sauce and pour onto baking sheet for the second round of baking! The original recipe didn’t call for any more baking, but I thought it would do wonders…

and it did!

The Sucanat sugar caramelized and got all crispy and chunky!

Mmmm….your house will smell like a dream.

Serve with cold beer and hockey. ;)

Now all I have to do is wait patiently for 7 days for the Leafs Vs Habs kick-off game.

Love getting tickets to the Dallas Stars play. I don’t follow hockey much, too big of a college football fan but when we get tickets for free to go watch in Dallas, we love it! I’d like to go see minor league hockey, heard it’s even more exciting!

Okay, how do you DO that?! I swear your blog posts are always so “in sync” with what I’ve been thinking about. My parents just gave me ginormous bags of walnuts, pecans and almonds and I’ve been wondering what wonderful thing I could do with them. Needless to say, I will SO be making this nut recipe.
Thanks!!!

i love hockey season! i have been an ardent leafs fan since i was 12…a bear for punishment, aren’t i?! i always hope that THIS will be the year they turn things around…
A Hockey Night in Canada party sounds like a great idea!!

oh man, one thing I miss about living up North is hockey (GO SABRES!!!) It just isn’t the same down here in Miami though, the closest thing is the Panthers and who really even likes them (ice dancers really?!?!)

Awesome Angela! I never thought of making my own bar nuts. Good call and they look amazing. ;) I LOVE HOCKEY SEASON!! I seriously should of been a Canadian (Tim Hortons, Whistler, Putin- sp?, Wunder Bars!)

I used to go to Portland Winter Hawks games as a kid. My grandparents were REALLY into hockey! They would even host a member of the team in their house on occasion. I haven’t been to a game in a really long time though! The last one I went to, my husband and I actually left about halfway through because we didn’t realize it was going to go so late!

I always love your pictures of all the ingredients in the bowl – so pretty.
I have to say though, I’m pretty spoiled now with your recipes and all your pictures. I tried to go on another blog today and they had recipes and no pictures!! and then it just said stuff like “cook until done.” What’s that??

I love that you are a Canadian girl who can drink some brewsky’s and get down with bar nuts. Me too! Well, I grew up in Minnesota so practically Canadian but got smart and moved to sunny warm weather :)

I saw my first ever hockey match in Toronto last year and it was so much fun especially as the home team won! We had giant hotdogs and got big blue foam fingers which ended up being a pain to pack for the rest of the trip!! I’ll have to see if hockey is on TV anywhere in the UK as I like straight forward sports that don’t have crazy rules I don’t understand! :)

Hockey isn’t that big down here in Texas… But they do have an event called Puck and Paws which allows you to bring your dog to the game, and they have a bunch of shelters from the area set up booths about adoption.

I grew up in Connecticut and spent many a night going to hockey games!

I can’t say I enjoy your team choice! I don’t know if you cheer for Leafs or Habs, but neither one is acceptable if you ask me :P
While I’m Canadian, I live closer to Buffalo, so we’re huge fans of them, and have season tickets. I LOVE going to the games, so much fun! You could probably find cheap tickets there if you guys ever thought about going!

I’ve been a reader for a long time but this is my first time posting. I couldn’t stay quiet on this one because I’m excited for hockey too!!!! I live in Maryland and have tickets to the Caps v. Islanders game coming up on the 13th. Can’t wait!

I don’t normally eat bar nuts at the bar because of the whole “Imagine how many people’s hands have touched those” thing – I’m not a germophobe, but that one does sort of sketch me out! These however, look delicious!

I LOVE that you drink beer! Sometimes I find it hard to balance a healthy lifestyle and my love of beer (although I have to get it gluten free these days) and wine. Do you only drink organic beer? And those nuts look amazing!

Angela, Great stuff. I will have to see if my sweetie will make this for me (she likes to cook and I like to eat we are the perfect match).

I see you enjoy Upper Canada. I hope you have tried Creemore Springs Lager. It is one of fav craft beers and made not to far from you. http://www.creemoresprings.com/live/index.php
Enjoy the game (in due course).

I do want to try these even though we live in Florida, don’t watch hockey, and rarely drink beer. I’m thinking……uhmmmm….. margarita. It sounds like a wonderful recipe, but I’ve never heard of Sucanat, and Earth Balance is margarine, not butter. I won’t eat chemical spreads, so the real thing will be substituted. I did look up Sucanat and there are some things I can substitute for that, too, like Splenda Brown. The original recipe at Union Square is what I’ll use except for salt I have to use Morton’s salt substitute, which is potassium chloride, and I won’t use nearly as much of it. The nuts are healthy, anyway, lol! It’s hard to be old and on a restricted diet! Cheers!

I made these (with a lot of changes) and they were insanely delicious!!! I only used one tablespoon of avocado oil (healthier than earth balance), only 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cayenne instead of 1/4, no maple syrup, and 2 Tbsp xylitol instead of sugar. 2 T fresh rosemary from my garden as suggested. Didn’t do the second bake as I taste tested and it was so freakin delicious I couldn’t imagine changing it. Thank you!